Oral Health Vs Healthy Teeth

The Surgeon General reports, “Oral health means much more than healthy teeth.” Teeth are such an important tool to not only eating but the first step of the digestive process. With that said, teeth isn’t the only thing to take care of in the mouth, there are many more steps to be taken to have good oral health besides brushing teeth. Healthy teeth are a good start to oral health but it isn’t everything. As many may already know as people age their oral health declines. People can alter this decline by having negative everyday lifestyle choices or positive everyday lifestyle choices.
The average adult has thirty two teeth in their mouth and are something people have throughout their lifetime. Teeth are permanent, but with age this isn’t always …show more content…
An article reports, “The hardest substance in the human body is the white enamel of the teeth. With age, it wears away” (Gawande). When this decline in oral health begins due to attrition, dental abrasion, or dental erosion the teeth start to reveal the darker layers of themselves along with becoming softer due to the fact the tooth is shedding layers. The blood supply to the middle of the tooth where connective tissue is located, also known as pulp starts to decline along with the flow of saliva. The gums also start to become inflamed caused by bacteria which results in having swollen, bleeding, or redness of the gums. When this starts to take place the gums start to pull or move away from the teeth, causing more of the tooth to be exposed. When the gums pull away from the teeth, they become unstable without the support they need. This often can result in them falling out, leading to the need for dentures. Of course, there is surgeries that can fix this problem, but old age starts to become a problem. Younger people who may experience their gums pulling away from their teeth or inflamed gums can feel the pain, but with old age nerves aren’t as sensitive compared to as they were when somebody was younger, so sometimes when elderly people do realize they are having issues it is too late for surgery. Shocking statistics show, “In the course of a normal lifetime, the muscles of the jaw lose about forty percent of their mass and the bones of the mandible lose about twenty percent, becoming porous and weak… By the age of sixty, Americans have lost, on average, a third of their teeth. After eighty-five, almost forty percent have no teeth at all…” (Gawande). When the ability to chew declines due to the amount of teeth someone has or defectively fitting dentures, the elderly settle for unhealthy foods because they are soft and easier to chew on which causes oral diseases or complications such as